Simple backup solution

[kapow]

I just tried using MS-backup, it gave up after 4GB. My data is 6GB.
"Note if this disk is formatted with FAT32, the maximum possible size for the backup file is limited to 4GB."

What I would really like is some software that incrementaly backs up selected folders without turning them into a special file format, ie it just copies them to my backup drive.

Then I can view or restore from my backup drive without being tied to the backup software.

Is there such a thing?

[kjs50]

Handy Backup looks interesting, but they haven't had an update since Aug 2003. I emailed the developer to see if they were still adding features, but haven't heard back yet. Will let post something once I do since they are in a different time zone.

[Robert Charlton]

...but they haven't had an update since Aug 2003.

I wouldn't necessarily hold that against them. Maybe they debugged the last version before they released it. ;)

[bill]

Keep in mind that a Drive Image is different from backing up individual files. An image of your drive when restored is exactly the same. It's a snapshot of the state of your entire machine (which can be compressed). Incremental backups of certain files is a different matter. I could write a DOS batch file to do that...that's just copying files.

Using the Norton Ghost 9 you can recover individual files from an image (just so that you know). They have an Image browser that works just like Windows Explorer if you need to get a previous version of something.

Partitioning your drives is a really good idea. Separate the operating system, your program files, and your data. I image my working files constantly, but only bother with Windows a couple times a month at most.

[kapow]

...Partitioning your drives is a really good idea. Separate the operating system, your program files, and your data.

I may still do that when I have time. I'm not very technical so I scares me to change anything major on my computer as I always end up changing something that has been just right for ages. However, I believe its a good idea to do that partitioning thing.

At least I have a simple backup working now. Thanks everyone :)

[Robert Charlton]

Separate the operating system, your program files, and your data...

Makes sense. But a lot of program files have user settings that I think of as data, but with some of them I've never figured out how to change the default directories. Some program preferences are pretty stable. Others are constantly changing. Any recommendations about how/where to handle program settings in the partitioning?

Ditto, I think of my Windows Favorites as important and frequently changed data, but I don't know that there's an option to put them into a data bin. Fonts are a little easier. Any recommendations on this kind of info in the partitioning scheme? I'm thinking about this in terms of ongoing backup.

Also, any size recommendations for easy partition maintenance?

[g1smd]

For Windows, I think that the OS and Programs should be in a combined backup... simply because so many programs rely both on files they dumped in the \Windows directory, as well as a myriad of configuration stuff they stored in the Registry too.

[bill]

Any recommendations about how/where to handle program settings in the partitioning?

I usually do this on a clean installation of Windows. Immediately after installing Windows and before I add any programs I'll go into the registry and change the Default Programs Location. So, instead of having everything default to c:\program files I'll set it to point to d:\program files. There are a few caveats to this but basically I change this:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
[i]Name:[/i] ProgramFilesDir
[i]Data Type:[/i] REG_SZ
[i]Value:[/i] d:\Program Files

I haven't done this in a while, but those are the values I had in my notes. All of the cautions apply: Back up your registry first!

(Aside: If you take a drive image of a clean install of Windows you'll never have to do a full install on that machine again...you can always just reapply that image and you've got a clean setup ready to go.)

You can switch the default Program Files drive without a clean Windows install as well. That just points any future program installs to your d: drive (or wherever you decide). However, you may have to manually redirect any programs that already rely on that registry setting. (I think the Norton utilities have something to automatically adjust this.)